Thursday, June 28, 2012

How Obamacare Will Screw the Young

Originally posted while the Obamacare debate was going on in Congress.

By Prateik Dalmia

Young people are least likely to need health insurance because we tend to be healthier than the remaining population. With good reason, we often choose to go uninsured. While young adults constitute 18 percent of the adult population, we make up 28 percent of the uninsured adult population (according to a study by John Holahan and Genivieve M. Kenney of the Urban Institute). By imposing an "individual mandate," the current health care bill will require that we purchase health insurance or face a fine proportional to our income.

Many of us may prefer the fine over health insurance because of how unaffordable health insurance will be under Obamacare. In most states, because older individuals are much higher risk customers, they "pay six or seven times in premiums what younger people do," as economist Anne Kim told Fox News. But the Senate bill would impose a ratio of no greater than 3-1 and the House bill, 2-1. A study by the Urban Institute found that a 2-1 ratio would push premium costs for young people up by almost $1,100, thus dropping them a little less than $3,000 a year. Not satisfied, the AARP is pressing Congress to make our premiums identical with those of the elderly. Essentially, in order to make health care more affordable for the older population, Obamacare would force us to subsidize their health insurance.

This is ironic considering that we are the poorest segment of the population. We have not had time to build up capital, many of us have accrued student loans and after graduation we face a crippled economy due to no fault of our own (college graduates currently face a 40 percent plunge in employment opportunities according to a study by Michigan State University). Yet the government plans to take from us, the poor, and give to them, the rich: Robin Hood in reverse. As one of our few supporters, Robert Samuelson of The Washington Post said, "We have become a society that invests in its past and disfavors the future." And yet polls consistently show that under-30 voters are the staunchest supporters of Obamacare! Are we lemmings?

Note: I originally posted this in December, 2009. Prateik Dalmia is an international studies major at Johns Hopkins University. The above is an abbreviated version of a commentary originally written for the Johns Hopkins News-letter. You can read the full comentaryhere.

15 comments:

"As one of our few supporters, Robert Samuelson of The Washington Post said, 'We have become a society that invests in its past and disfavors the future.' And yet polls consistently show that under-30 voters are the staunchest supporters of Obamacare! Are we lemmings?"

You reap what you sow---most young people voted for this destroyer in the White House--they drank the kooliad and didn't even care that ALL the man's records are SEALED tight. Who, in their right mind votes a man who has spent $2 million to seal all his records, even a 10 year old child knows that indicates the man has much to hide. But these young people wet their pants over him and swooned and cried at his rallies...NOW they are getting screwed, elections have consequences children-I hope you enjoy the F*ck ! You have been played and pimped.

The scientific community is just as addicted to government money as any other sector, therefore they continue to only publish information in agreement with the establishment. A professor in any major secular university would not dare to go outside the evolutionary idiot box in his or her thinking, lest he or she suddenly lose their grant funding and wind up on the street.

Evolution is stupid. Good science is not funded by the government or the self-righteous all-knowing academic elite.

It surprises me that young people are as gullible as they are. They believe the line that insurance is about spreading the cost so it is fair that they pay as much as seniors. The ignore the clear fact that when they were younger than 25 they paid much more for auto insurance.

Real insurance is about spreading the risk while adjusting for known risk factors.

I pity the young adults who Obama schmoozed, acting like a "cool" guy to get elected, and then commenced screwing our country! Your best bet would be to get Obama out of office and elect someone for president who has young adults in his family. Then you're more likely to see better choices and opportunities available to us all.

I'm 26 and never voted for Obama and proud of it! I never wanted obamacare but now am being forced to because my employer does not provide insurance. I say we find something Obama doesn't want to do and force him to do it. I also was told that my insurance would drop when i was 26 and it didn't, just dropped the normal amount it would i guess for another year older but i was told the rates went up so it didn't matter. I'm a young man with my head screwed on right. I have a 2007 Honda civic, 01 Chevy s10, and a house that was made in 1994. I worked hard for what i got since 5 years ago i was in a homeless shelter and never one used the government for help providing what i could, and what i needed.